X Marks the Spot!
Years ago I was chatting with a friend who shared a compelling story. During the Great Depression, many clearly hungry and homeless people would go door to door seeking help. These folk seemed to knock at the homes of some doors more than others. At those homes, nobody was turned away. Each person was given both food and some money.
It turns out that hoboes and other poor and homeless people had evolved a series of signs that could be painted or chalked near homes to indicate whether it was safe to approach the residents for food or other help. They had signs for clean water sources and safe campgrounds, for people who were dangerous, or used guns to scare the seekers away. An X in a circle meant the residents of the home were safe and welcoming and likely to help. Many people, when aware they had been marked in this way, resented it, and scrubbed away the mark, calling it “a dirty trick”. But some deliberately left the welcoming icon for the duration of this difficult time.
Here are some questions for all of us to consider:
Are our actions such that we would earn a circled X outside our home? Are those in need able to find love and generosity in each of us?
Who puts the X by our names? Someone else has to put the X there. We don’t get to decide that we have been generous; someone else does that. And the chances are highly likely that we will not know who did it.
How do you earn an X? Through acts of direct generosity and kindness. By keeping an eye out for those in need–a neighbor, a friend, a family member, the lonely or vulnerable, the hungry, homeless, marginalized, the mentally or physically challenged. Those in need could be anyone. They could come from across the entire economic, political, social or religious spectrum.
How do you keep an X? By not resenting those who ask. Even if at times you cannot respond, you can treat those who ask with dignity and humanity and open-ness to their needs.
“Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire about whether they are worthy.” Thomas Merton
You could also give the resources of your time, your talent, and your treasure indirectly through a church or organization that has compassion and care for anyone who has needs.
“Blessed are those who have regard for the weak; the Lord delivers them in times of trouble. And do not forget to do good and to share with others. I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me” Psalm 41:1, Hebrews 13:16, Matthew 25:40
May all of us continue to strive to earn our X’s in life.
Blessings,
Tom
Part of a chart in the Henry Dreyfuss book Symbol Sourcebook: An Authoritative Guide to International Graphic Symbols, 1972. Dreyfuss extensively interviewed many who had been homeless during the Depression to determine the meanings.
